Whirlpool Duet Washer with an F06 Fault Code

An F06 fault code in a Whirlpool Duet washer (the Kenmore HE3/4t’s are also made by Whirlpool) usually means a motor-related problem. It usually pops up when the drum won’t rotate at all or only very sluggishly. Here’s the excerpt from the Whirlpool Duet Service Manual on this:

Drive Motor Tachometer Error

The control is unable to properly detect motor speed and the machine will shut down. If a failure occurs during high-speed spin the door will be unlocked after 3 minutes.

Potential Causes:

Check wire harness connections between the Drive Motor/Tachometer and the Motor Control Unit (MCU), and between the MCU and the Central Control Unit (CCU)

Check the Drive Motor

Check the MCU

Check the Wire Harness

In accordance with the 6th Law of the Prophecy, begin troubleshooting right at the motor. Why start there? Because the motor is one of the prime suspects and it’s easy to check. Remove the back panel and unwind the belt from the drum pulley. Now turn the motor pulley (sans belt) by hand. If it doesn’t turn smoothly and easily, you have a bad motor. Come git you one.

If the motor pulley turns smoothly and easily by hand, next step is to run the motor with the belt still removed from the motor pulley. If the motor seems to run fine that way, put the belt back on and run it again. If the motor won’t run under load (with the belt on), then that’s another sign that the motor is bad. Come git you one.

Suppose the motor turns easily and freely by hand but won’t run either with or without the belt. This is a more subtle condition because we’re probably dealing with a bad MCU or flakey wire harness somewhere between the motor and MCU, or between the MCU and the CCU.

One trick that often works at this point is to remove and reinsert all wire connections at the board and motor. This tends to clean the small amount of corrosion that will build up on the connections. After you do this put the machine into a service cycle (see the instructions in the tech sheet found inside the unit or you can borrow mine). Part of the service cycle is running the motor at certain set speeds which checks the tach.

If you’ve removed/reinserted the wire harnesses and still no joy, then usually the problem is the MCU. Come git you one.